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Coley Harvey, ESPN Workers Author
SAINT-DENIS, France — Noah Lyles desires the world to know this: He’s removed from finished.
In the future after incomes his first Olympic gold medal in an exhilarating 100-meter ultimate, the American speedster continued his quest to drag off the uncommon accomplishment of successful three golds in three dash occasions at a single Video games.
“I ain’t going to lie, I really feel fairly jacked up,” Lyles stated about operating Monday evening at Stade de France, 22 hours after his medal-worthy race. “Me and my coach knew that we have been going to come back in and it was going to be a race the place we’re actually going to only should play it by ear.
“He stated ‘top-2.’ In my coronary heart I stated ‘top-1.'”
The “quickest man on this planet” ended up listening to his intestine, successful the 200’s ultimate warmth of the evening in 20.19 seconds. He advances to Wednesday evening’s semifinals. Lyles hit an additional gear about 110 meters into the race, permitting him to drag away down the straightaway earlier than easing into the end.
“That race I would say obtained out, as I say, quite a lot of the gunk out of the physique — adhesions, tenderness, that type of stuff,” Lyles stated. “So it was very wanted. I may have handled a day earlier than we began racing.”
Lyles, stated there have been few celebrations throughout his gold-medal evening. He spent it talking with media, fulfilling a compulsory postrace drug take a look at, and slipping into boyfriend mode.
Monday marks the two-year anniversary for Lyles and his girlfriend, Jamaican 400-meter runner Junelle Bromfield, Lyles stated. Whereas he admits owing her an actual trip after the Olympics, he performed an vital act of chivalry within the wee hours Monday morning.
Round 2 a.m. Paris time, Lyles stated Bromfield let him know she had unintentionally left her operating spikes at their therapeutic massage therapist’s Airbnb close to the Olympic Village. Since she was operating her first races of the Olympics later Monday morning, it was crucial she get these spikes.
“So right here I’m at 2 a.m., waddling with a spike bag, my bag and a few toiletries, and I am like, ‘Huh. Right here I’m, Olympics champion, 100 meters, waddling to my girlfriend’s room with all these items,'” Lyles stated, laughing.
“I am a great boyfriend.”
Bromfield certified out of her opening-round 400-meter warmth, ending third in 51.36 seconds.
In Monday evening’s males’s 200-meter races, fellow People Kenny Bednarek, operating in 19.96 seconds, and Erriyon Knighton (19.99), additionally superior into the semifinals after successful their heats.
In Tokyo, Lyles earned bronze within the occasion. A yr later, on the 2022 world championships in Oregon, he set a private finest when he earned gold in 19.31 seconds. The time sits simply 0.01 seconds shy of the Olympic report Jamaican Usain Bolt set on the 2008 Video games in Beijing.
If Lyles wins gold in Thursday evening’s 200 finals, he may have taken care of the second occasion on the dash triple checklist. A gold medal as a part of the U.S. males’s 4×100 relay group Friday, and he may have accomplished it.
Solely 4 males within the historical past of the Olympics have pulled off the uncommon dash triple. Three of them are American: Jesse Owens (1936), Bobby Morrow (1956) and Carl Lewis (1984). Bolt is the one particular person to have gained sprint-triples in three separate Video games, doing it on the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
After his 100-meter victory Sunday, Lyles was requested how assured he was that he may notch the three gold medals.
“Fairly assured now, I am unable to lie,” he stated.
The always-brash Lyles then took it a step additional.
“Kenny positively put up a quick time at [U.S.] trials, and that positively woke me up,” Lyles stated, referencing Bednarek, who completed seventh in Sunday’s hotly contested 100-meter ultimate. “I used to be very happy with him. He is positively not going to take how he did right here within the 100 mendacity down. He will say: ‘I am going after it within the 200.’ As a result of he is aware of he can go after it.
“However my job is to make it possible for … I am going to simply depart it there. I will be successful.”
Lyles’ American 100-meter teammate, Fred Kerley, then interjected: “Discuss your s—, man.”
Completed Lyles: “But when that man [Bednarek] ain’t successful, none of them is successful. Once I come off the flip … they are going to be depressed.”